Tonight L and I partake in a spot of the unmentionable. Well it’s unmentionable for L anyway and I give her a lesson in the black art of changing a tyre, just in case she gets a puncture during the Cat on Sunday. Well it’s not a black art really, well not for men, who seem to instinctively know how to do it.
At dog training tonight they switch the trainers on us, which isn’t really very good form. I’ve paid for a particular trainer who I get on with and who has trained MD since he was a young pup. So I’m not best pleased when we get someone else. I’m not the only one miffed about it either. There doesn’t even appear to be any reason for it, our normal trainer is there training her own dog on the other side of the arena. Apparently they’ve had a disagreement... err... so what? That’s not very professional.
That said MD was actually rather good. He only had a few poles down, his weaves were excellent and even his tunnels were good. I had got him pencilled in for extra tunnel practice but he seems to have less of a phobia about them tonight. Ok, so his contacts weren’t that good... but you can’t have everything.
L’s still wrestling with her tyre when I get home, the fact it hasn’t been taken off for years clearly doesn’t help. She’s not happy but the wine rack is untouched, so the situation has not reached critical yet. I hope I offer helpful advice and we get it sorted. I’m sure that should the unmentionable happen, she’ll have plenty of assistance on hand, what with being a girl. Should it happen to me, I’ll be on my own with only other chaps yelling ‘good luck mate’ at me and my upturned bike, as they whizz past at 30mph.
It’s the first day of the Track Cycling World Championships from Copenhagen today. At last something to watch on TV.
Showing posts with label puncture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label puncture. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
A Long Standing Tradition
Yesterday’s ice gives way to an old favourite, rain. So I bike. As I meander through the estate I can see L and the boys up ahead of me. I can also hear them, well one of them, MD. He seems to be in good voice this morning.
I pull up at a red light in Spondon but the cyclist behind me simply carries on regardless, as do the two cars behind him. I know it’s a long standing tradition that at every set of traffic lights at least two cars jump the red light but the cyclist should have known better and all of us cyclists get the blame for that. He’ll stop one day though, when he meets those two cars coming the other way.
One of the events I’d fancied doing for a while was the Humber Duathlon in April but now I’m rapidly going off the idea. Mainly because there were only 27 entries in the last one, so I could end up doing the event and hardly seeing a soul for most of it. This defeats half the object of doing a ‘race’. This April’s event would be the third running of it. They had 41 entries for the first one but then it dropped to 27 for the second... so it’s getting less popular, either that or they lost the other 14 over the side of the Humber Bridge... I expect it's a bit blowy going over the bridge. Depending on where they land, that would make it a triathlon, technically speaking.
I was describing to L the other day my plan for avoiding a head on collision when a car overtakes another car and is coming towards you on your side of the road. This is when cycling. Basically it’s a case of getting ready to hurl one’s self sideways and home there’s a soft landing, like a hedge, there. I nearly got to put it into practice today on my way home. It was a close run thing.
My eventful journey continued a few miles down the road when I got a puncture going through Bramcote. I pull over and install a new tube, getting nice and cold doing so. I do the usual check for nails, shards of glass etc, which may be imbedded in the tyre. Nothing. I do notice that tyre is very thin though. Is that a hole? Hmmm, to be honest I have known that these tyres were on the way out, since... well, before Christmas. Half a mile down the road, whoosh, all the goes out of the tyre again. Another tube blown. It must be the tyre. I have another tube but I don’t wish to waste it, so I walk the remaining mile home.
All this means that I don’t get my swim again but still I get home at almost exactly the same time as if I’d been. Not the best day on the bike.
I pull up at a red light in Spondon but the cyclist behind me simply carries on regardless, as do the two cars behind him. I know it’s a long standing tradition that at every set of traffic lights at least two cars jump the red light but the cyclist should have known better and all of us cyclists get the blame for that. He’ll stop one day though, when he meets those two cars coming the other way.
One of the events I’d fancied doing for a while was the Humber Duathlon in April but now I’m rapidly going off the idea. Mainly because there were only 27 entries in the last one, so I could end up doing the event and hardly seeing a soul for most of it. This defeats half the object of doing a ‘race’. This April’s event would be the third running of it. They had 41 entries for the first one but then it dropped to 27 for the second... so it’s getting less popular, either that or they lost the other 14 over the side of the Humber Bridge... I expect it's a bit blowy going over the bridge. Depending on where they land, that would make it a triathlon, technically speaking.
I was describing to L the other day my plan for avoiding a head on collision when a car overtakes another car and is coming towards you on your side of the road. This is when cycling. Basically it’s a case of getting ready to hurl one’s self sideways and home there’s a soft landing, like a hedge, there. I nearly got to put it into practice today on my way home. It was a close run thing.
My eventful journey continued a few miles down the road when I got a puncture going through Bramcote. I pull over and install a new tube, getting nice and cold doing so. I do the usual check for nails, shards of glass etc, which may be imbedded in the tyre. Nothing. I do notice that tyre is very thin though. Is that a hole? Hmmm, to be honest I have known that these tyres were on the way out, since... well, before Christmas. Half a mile down the road, whoosh, all the goes out of the tyre again. Another tube blown. It must be the tyre. I have another tube but I don’t wish to waste it, so I walk the remaining mile home.
All this means that I don’t get my swim again but still I get home at almost exactly the same time as if I’d been. Not the best day on the bike.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Mr Pothole Claims A Victim
It takes over an hour to get to work by car but I just couldn’t physically have biked and made it to class tonight. So I just have grin and bear it and start a new audio book.
Perhaps I had a lucky escape because today Mr Pothole claims a victim. A work colleague gets a puncture on his road bike. Unfortunately he’s about half way between work and home, and has neither a spare tube nor a repair kit with him. Not that either would be much use without tyre levers and a pump, which he also doesn’t have. These people who are used to riding MTB’s and therefore not used to getting punctures.
So does he walk the five miles in cycling shoes... He makes it as far as Asda, where he buys a pair of training shoes to make it the rest of the way. I think carrying a repair kit would have been easier and cheaper.
I wasn’t even going to comment on the Brit Award nominations but then I notice I’m going to see one of the nominees. OMG. Bloody Mika. Then when you see who he’s up against for the award, I’d even be tempted to vote for him.
Later MD’s training goes well. Though he seems oddly subdued whilst waiting his turn. He then confounds everyone by refusing to leave the dog walk before emptying his bladder over it. So embarrassing.
Doggo had a fairly naff session afterwards. I just wanted to give him a run out but there wasn’t much room. So much for splitting the arena in two, the trainer nabbed around three quarters of it. We couldn’t even get much equipment out as our store room is so new we haven’t got any lights in there yet and we couldn’t see what we were doing.
Perhaps I had a lucky escape because today Mr Pothole claims a victim. A work colleague gets a puncture on his road bike. Unfortunately he’s about half way between work and home, and has neither a spare tube nor a repair kit with him. Not that either would be much use without tyre levers and a pump, which he also doesn’t have. These people who are used to riding MTB’s and therefore not used to getting punctures.
So does he walk the five miles in cycling shoes... He makes it as far as Asda, where he buys a pair of training shoes to make it the rest of the way. I think carrying a repair kit would have been easier and cheaper.
I wasn’t even going to comment on the Brit Award nominations but then I notice I’m going to see one of the nominees. OMG. Bloody Mika. Then when you see who he’s up against for the award, I’d even be tempted to vote for him.
Later MD’s training goes well. Though he seems oddly subdued whilst waiting his turn. He then confounds everyone by refusing to leave the dog walk before emptying his bladder over it. So embarrassing.
Doggo had a fairly naff session afterwards. I just wanted to give him a run out but there wasn’t much room. So much for splitting the arena in two, the trainer nabbed around three quarters of it. We couldn’t even get much equipment out as our store room is so new we haven’t got any lights in there yet and we couldn’t see what we were doing.
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